Japanese Web site localization

Is Internet usage common in Japan?

Internet usage is very common in Japan and Japanese is often said to be the second most common language on the Internet after English. The web and email are accessed not only from PCs, but also from cell phones and other popular mobile devises. Broadband high-speed connections for PCs have seen particularly high growth rates recently.

Over 50% of the adult Japanese population is online as of the end of 2002
– AsiaBizTech March 2003

Can Japanese characters be displayed on any English language system?

Until recently, English-based computer systems had difficulty displaying Japanese. This is because English-based systems are designed for one-byte characters such as the alphabet. Double-byte characters such as Japanese can now be handled by many English-based systems that have Windows 2000 or newer.
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